Thursday, September 18, 2014

AGH!

That day I fear each and every growing season has finally arrived. 

The temperature is going to drop to zero tonight.

AGH!!! Patchy frost predicted.

Must, must, must get out in the garden today and pick everything left there.

Run and do not stop till all is harvested. 

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Tomatoes

It's way past time to do something with all my tomatoes. 

The cheery cherries I have been dehydrating at an incredible rate. Those little buggers are still coming on strong. Thing is, I only planted one plant. And, it won't stop producing. But, that's okay, I'm not complaining.... they will be very tasty this winter when anything that bears resemblance to a tomato in the grocery store will taste like cardboard. These dehydrated honeys are such pretty little things in the mason jars.... a bold bright vivacious red colour. (Can red be vivacious?)They look like jewels. 

The romas did well. I am happy to report. They make canning tomato recipes so much easier as they are mostly meat with far less seeds and water than a "normal" tomato has. Which if you know anything about tomatoes, you gotta know they are approximately 95% water. And, when you make things to can like tomato paste, spaghetti sauce, ketchup and tomato soup you have to let these things cook down for a long periods of time if you are using a standard versus Roma tomato. Bet you didn't know that, eh?

Since hubby is now a vegetarian.... it's a meatless spaghetti sauce I'll be doing today. 

Below are pictures of some of the tomatoes I have been jawing about. 




 

Sunday, September 14, 2014

Summer Update

Here it is September already. I can hardly believe how this summer had flown by. Weather is cooling down and the maples are starting to turn colours.

Garden did very well this year. Nothing untoward happened unless you count the big holes under the raised garden boxes. Thank you Sonny. Oh and Sonny.....







He is doing well. He's settled in and he and Gracie have bonded well and are truly good friends. Only problem is he puts everything in his mouth and chews these very same things. Rugs, phone cords (dangerous), underwear, stuff out of the recycling bins, paper, hats, shoes... do I need to go on? Hard wood floors, pillows, books, grass, weeds, floor tiles in bathroom. Okay enough. You get the idea. Problem in all this... is how to get him to stop? We have tried lots of things, but, nothing has worked so far. Might be because we just never know what he'll chew next. Any ideas? Please leave me a comment.

Both lawn mowers, the tractor and the push type are down for the count right now. The lawn tractor purchased less than 4 years ago from SEARS (NEVER BUYING ANYTHING FROM SEARS EVER AGAIN!)  has a part that broke about 3 months ago. It's been on back order for all this time. With the service people saying.... they don't think they make that part. WHAT????????? It's already been prepaid for on a credit card... and here we wait with our lawn probably 10 - 12 inches tall. We had been mowing pathways in and around the acre with the push mower till it broke it's pull cord. I went to fix that and with the problems with my hands (fingers actually) I can not loosen the bolts on the mower to get to the starter area to repair the cord. Damn it. Going to have to call our favorite mechanic to come and help me do this.

Mark has been working on the rust repairs on the vehicles. Little car is well on to almost being done. Next
up will be my truck. Then it will be time to switch over the summer tires for the winter ones. The jobs they
never seem to end.

And, how was your summer?















Little old me...

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An american yankee up past the 49th parellel.

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